Commonwealth Bank issues warning to homeowners

The Commonwealth Bank is predicting Australian house prices will fall in early 2025 even as interest rates are cut, before rebounding later in the year.

House prices last month fell in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart, with capital city values having no growth for three straight months, CoreLogic data showed.

Gareth Aird, the Commonwealth Bank's head of Australian economics, is expecting house prices to fall in the first half of 2025, even though he is predicting the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut rates in February.

'It is not unusual to see some fatigue creep into the national housing market given affordability remains stretched on most conventional metrics,' he said.

'We don't expect property prices in Sydney and Melbourne to suddenly shift higher as rates are cut given there is a lot more advertised stock on the...
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